Machines of this type are already known and they generally use a pulse laser. These machines are difficult to use for acting on integrated circuits and on thin layers, for example magnetic layers formed on the magnetic heads of video recorders or of computer disk drives, since the time intervals between the laser pulses allow the layer of material being acted on to cool down and therefore do not provide advantageous speed of execution or fineness of cut.
Proposals have already been made to use continuous laser machines of the type using an argon laser which is coupled to an optical circuit including a microscope for focusing the laser beam to a diameter of about one micrometer on the surface of the object to be treated. However, this is a laboratory instrument which requires extremely fine and delicate adjustment and it is not suitable for industrial use.
The invention seeks to provide a microbeam laser machine for acting on objects having thin layers of material, which machine is suitable for industrial use, is capable of being automated, and makes it possible to accurately observe the action of the laser microbeam on objects being treated.
The invention also seeks to provide a machine of this type which is capable of being used not only for accurate operations on integrated circuits, e.g. for correcting microdefects, but also for microanalysing, for repairing, and for reconfiguring integrated circuits and various other objects having thin layers of material, as used in microelectronics, for example.